Warsaw, January 13 (RHC)-- In Poland, lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have liberalized the country’s abortion laws. The legislation would have removed all restrictions on abortion within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, while funding sexual education and contraception programs.

Lawmakers with the ruling conservative Law and Justice party say they’ll now enlist the help of Polish Catholic clergy as they advance a bill that would prohibit abortions for women carrying fetuses with severe deformities.

Poland already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Pregnant women are only allowed to have abortions in cases of rape, incest or extreme danger to a woman’s health, or if prenatal tests show serious damage to a fetus.